Adaptive Capacity of Rural Women and their Potentials for Participating in Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Niger State, Nigeria

The study investigated the level and determinants of adaptive capacity among rural women Niger state. A Multistage random sampling technique was used to select 100 Women from three (3) peri-urban villages (Maikunkele, Bosso and Chanchaga) purposively selected based on the prevalence of poverty alleviation programmes as well as proximity to the State Capital and Federal University of Technology, Minna. The Primary data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, adaptive capacity and beta regression. The results revealed that the level of participation in the various PAPs was very low except in the case of National Health Insurance Scheme. Moreover, less than 10% of the women possess adequate capacity to participate in the PAPs. It was also observed that most of the factors either alone or in interaction with others tend to suppress the adaptive capacity of the women to participate in the PAPs. It was further noted that most of the respondents have not acquired beyond secondary education haven spent about 8 years in formal education, although completing College of Education was found to increase adaptive capacity by about 5%. The most serious constraint against full participation in the PAPs is lack of awareness of the programmes. There is need to integrate awareness and education in the programme document of any PAP in order to raise the level of participation above what is reported in this study.